Many movies have been called out for focusing too much on fan service over pleasing a general audience. That was not really a complaint that any A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th fan should have had when Freddy vs. Jason finally became a reality in 2003. While it received a mixed bag of reviews from both critics and audiences, the film’s recent leap into the HBO movie chart has proven that you really can’t keep a good movie maniac down.
Freddy vs. Jason is one of many horror titles added to Max last week in the build up to Halloween, and fans have been very quick to reacquaint themselves with the horror mashup that pitted two cinematic icons against each other long before anyone believed Godzilla v. Kong was ever a possibility. The film has bobbled around the Top Ten for the best part of a week since it dropped in the U.S. several days ago, and having also been added to HBO services in other countries, the blood-soaked smackdown has proven to be one of the more popular horror offerings for the streamer’s spook season charge.
More than 20 years since the movie became a franchise hit in cinemas, Freddy vs. Jason remains the last real appearance of Robert Englund as his iconic razor-fingered dream demon. However, both characters have appeared in remakes, with 2009’s Friday the 13th being a surprisingly praised revival of the machete-loving hockey fan, but 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street proving that it could prove eternally impossible to make a new Freddy movie without Englund under the make-up and prosthetics. While Englund has made several other appearances as the character, including in a Halloween special of the comedy series The Goldbergs, he has unfortunately made it clear that he is not going to be bringing Krueger back to the big screen again.
Freddy vs. Jason Had Only One Purpose – and Mostly Fulfilled it
Although Freddy, Jason and several other horror movie icons have appeared together in comic book crossovers, the idea of getting these characters together on the big screen was an almost impossible pipe dream for a very long time. Similar to other team-ups like Alien v Predator, and the previously mentioned Godzilla v Kong, delivering Freddy and Jason to the big screen required a lot of thought into how it could be possible to bring the two icons into the same space in a way that did not overly smack of artifice – and didn’t completely alienate those unfamiliar with the two characters’ previous movies.
In many respects, Freddy vs. Jason succeeded in creating a scenario where the master of the dream reality and the monster from the lake could actually face off. As it turned out, this included Jason being thrown into Freddy’s nightmare world before the pair faced off in the real world to gloriously gory effect.
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For any fan of these two behemoths of horror, the main goal was simple – fans wanted to see them beating seven bells out of each in a fight to the (near) death. The build-up to this showdown was all just filler for the main event, and that final act certainly has plenty of brutal moments as director Ronnie Yu keeps fans guessing who will come out on top. Of course, it would not be a franchise movie if it didn’t end with a tease of more to come. Even if the final shot features Jason emerging from Crystal Lake holding Freddy’s dismembered head – which winks at the camera – it is just unfortunate that we will never see how that could have been followed up.